


Dead Beat Beats

by GoldandScarlett



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Secret Samol 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29117304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldandScarlett/pseuds/GoldandScarlett
Summary: The Chime needs a car, and the only person willing to drive them anywhere is Cass' older sibling that they definatly don't have a complicated relationship with thank you very much.And then also there is a chapter two with like, 500 words of Tender and Fourteen because if you ask me for Tender and Fourteen content like... I will create it.
Relationships: Cassander Timaeus Berenice/Mako Trig, Fourteen Fifteen/Tender Sky
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	1. Dead Beat Beats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blanksandwich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blanksandwich/gifts).



> Happy Secret Samol!

Cass had forgotten that Sokrates owned a pick-up truck. To be fair, it wasn’t like they really  _ hung out  _ with Sokrates all that often. Sure, they were no Euanthe, but they were still one of Cass’ siblings, which as far as Cass was concerned was reason enough to basically avoid them forever.

And it wasn’t exactly like Sokrates made themself hard to avoid. They’d been kicked out shortly before finishing high school, and gone to live in some weird hippie commune house where everyone grew their own vegetables and talked about overthrowing the government or whatever. Cass found the whole thing ridiculous. They’d been kicked out too (or more accurately, their superfluocity and general draining of dwindly family resources had been commented upon so often that Cass had gotten the hint and taken initiative), but they hadn’t been all weird about it. Mako had just aged out of the foster program anyways, and Aria was looking to start out on her own, so they’d gone over to Audy’s and bullied them into letting them all stay if they paid rent. And sure, Aria had a slightly alarming propensity towards outraged political monologuing, but none of them were outright trying to incite rebellion, and no one was growing weed in their window boxes (at least as far as Cass was aware). They were just normal friends living together. Like normal people. Because Cass knew how to be an adult about things. 

Also, Sokrates lived on the other side of town, and Cass had been busy, because putting yourself through pre-med was  _ hard _ , as it turns out, and if all your friends live in the same place as you, and your whole life was studying for your god awful organic chemistry class, you weren’t going to get out much, certainly not to go all the way across town to check out what kind of car your estranged sibling drove. Although, Cass admitted to themself, they should probably have at least checked to see how many seats it had before they asked Sokrates to drive them and the rest of their housemates to the city four hours away so that Aria could do an audition. 

“Sokrates,” they said. “Where are we all supposed to sit?”

“Oh,” Sokrates shrugged. “I figured you guys could just sit in the bed.” 

“An astonishingly illegal plan,” Audy observed, although they didn’t sound particularly worried about it. Not like it would matter to them anyways, Cass thought bitterly. 

“Yeah, I figured you guys were the sort of people who would just think it was cool,” Sokrates said with another shrug. 

Cass wanted to argue with that, but their point was undercut somewhat by Mako and Aria’s chorused squeals of unrestrained glee as they hurled their bags into the back of the truck and scrambled in after. 

“This is gonna be  _ incredible,” _ Mako cooed. 

Cass put a hand to their temple. They would have been perfectly happy to go through their whole life with Mako and Sokrates never meeting. “Guys, get out of the truck bed. My sibling is trying to kill you” they said and then, when they were predictably, utterly ignored, they turned to Sokrates. “What are we supposed to do if someone drives by and sees us?” they demanded, ignoring the smirk Sokrates was aiming at them. 

“There’s a tarp back there,” Sokrates said. “You can hide under that.” They patted Cass on the shoulder and started walking back towards their car. “You worry too much, Cass.” they said. “Have some fun. Live a little.” 

“That’s what I’m  _ trying  _ to do,” Cass hissed, over the sounds of Sokrates’ peeling laughter. “Wait,” they added, because Sokrates had gone to open the driver's side door. “What are you doing?” 

Sokrates cocked an eyebrow. “I’m driving.” 

“Why isn’t Audy driving?” 

Behind Cass, Audy made a huffing noise, like they were also wondering why they weren’t driving. 

“It’s my car,” Sokrates said, their voice laced with amusement. “Audy could have driven, if you’d taken their car.” They tilted their head in Audy’s direction, the movement clearly containing a question, but Audy, Cass knew, did not believe in answering personal questions -- a classification which doubtless had a very rigid set of specifications in Audy’s head, but to the rest of the world amounted simply to ‘questions.’ They just stared at Sokrates. 

Mako had no such stipulations. “They drove it into a lake!” He called cheerfully, angling his body over the side of the pickup so that Cass was certain he was going to go keeling over the edge at any moment. 

Sokrates’ expression remained the same, except for a slightly widening of the eyes, which Cass thought meant that they might be a little impressed despite themself. They made a sweeping gesture with their hand, like Audy had just presented their point for them. “So,” they said. “I will be driving.”

***

It was just the three of them in the back of the truck. Audy had certainly grumbled privately to themself but they, if anyone, knew to respect the codes of vehicular ownership and driver’s precedence. They did however, make it very clear that they would be riding shotgun. Sokrates, to their credit, had accepted this readily enough. Cass had been worried they might take the opportunity to try and bond with them. 

Being in the pickup bed wasn’t so bad actually. It was still mostly country roads, and while the car did occasionally make alarming sputtering noises, at least the wind was nice. Sort of comforting, like a strong ocean breeze. 

“So Sokrates seems cool,” said Mako. He was sprawled out along the bed of the truck, between Cass and Aria, who were sitting against the opposing walls like sensible people, and he had an arm raised towards the sky, waving his hand up and down like it was surfing the air. Mako gave Cass a moment to reply with some non-committal grumbling, which Cass obligingly supplied, and then he continued. “What’s you guys’ deal?” 

Cass hated questions about their family, but Mako asked them occasionally. He had a way of turning his head slightly up towards Cass whenever he did, his face artlessly earnest. Like he really did just want to know things about Cass’ family because Cass was his friend, and not because their family was the towns’ leading purveyor in scandalous gossip. It did weird things to Cass’ stomach. They usually answered, when it was Mako asking. 

“I don’t know,” said Cass, pretending they didn’t notice as Aria casually removed an earbud. “We were close when we were kids, I guess. They haven’t been around much in a while. They’re the one who brought all those papers to the press, and then they weren’t really welcome home after that, so…” 

“Hmm,” said Mako, his expression thoughtful. He was still waving his hand around, but it had taken on an almost meditative air now. Then he sat up so he could look at Cass, the movement so abrupt that Cass had to stop themself from starting. “Well I’m glad there’s someone else in your family who isn’t a total asshole,” he said. “Sad you guys couldn’t hang out more though.” He scooted over so that he was sitting next to Cass, and nudged their shoulder conspiratorially. “I bet you would have had better taste in music then.” 

Cass rolled their eyes and tried to shove Mako back in the realm of personal space, which was a hopeless endeavor because Mako was basically made of elastic: you could move him easily, but he would just revert back to where he’d started. Cass didn’t bother trying again. It wasn’t like they really minded anyways. “Sokrates has terrible taste in music,” they said. 

“Oh, like what?” Aria asked, yanking out her remaining headphone, abandoning all pretenses. 

“It’s um…” Cass floundered desperately for a moment, trying to come up with some artist they knew Sokrates liked that they could submit to Mako and Aria’s scorn, before they were forced to give up. “Yeah, you’d probably like it,” they admitted. 

“Is it maybe,” Mako dropped his voice to as much of a whisper as he could while still being heard over the rushing of the wind, “Maybe kind of pretentious and deliberately inflammatory? Is that maybe the sort of music that they listen to that you don’t like?” 

“It’s okay, Cass. You can say.” Aria tossed her hair, only the wind whipped a fair bit of it towards the front of her face. “My music is pretentious, deliberately inflammatory,  _ and _ carries a beat,” she said, extracting the strands from her mouth with dignity. “That’s like, a whole different genre.” 

“Hey, I like Aria’s music,” Cass said. 

“Sure, sure,” said Mako, patting them. “But it’s no Phil Collins, right?” 

“I don’t-” Cass started, but it was too late. Aria and Mako had already started a rousing rendition of  _ In the Air Tonight _ , performed at peak volume which, considering Aria’s trained ability to belt, was no inconsiderable thing. 

“This isn’t even a song for scream singing,” Cass protested, but at this point Mako had started beatboxing the drum solo, his performance accompanied by reckless headbanging and Cass gave up. They got a glimpse of Sokrates through the little window in the back of the truck, making that same infuriatingly amused expression at them in the rearview mirror, and buried their head in their hands. 

***

“Good luck, Aria,” Cass said, pulling her into a hug and trying to ignore that fact that Sokrates was leaning against their car and watching all of this unfold. 

“Oh, don’t wish me luck!” Aria said. “It’ll jinx me!” 

“Oh uh, okay. Um. I hope you do really bad? You’re the worst? How was that?” 

Aria beamed at them. “Perfect!” She said. 

“Break a leg, Aria!” Mako said. The two shared a fist bump which pulled back into a mimed explosion. 

“You sure you don’t want us to stay?” Cass asked. 

“Oh yeah, there’s like, no place for you guys to wait. You’d have to be outside anyways, you may as well walk around a little. Or,” she amended, casting a doubtful eye down the block of bleak and colorless office buildings, “maybe you can go explore downtown and meet me back here? I’ll be fine!  _ Really,” _ she said again, and Cass made an effort to school their face into something more hopeful looking, so that she wouldn't have to say it a third time. “Thanks for the lift, Sokrates,” Aria added, giving them an approximated finger waggle of a wave. 

Sokrates shot her a wry thumbs up from where they were still leaning against their car. “I’ll keep an eye on them for you,” they said. Aria had deposited cheek kisses to her friends and disappeared into the building before Cass had finished angrily sputtering. 

***

“I’d like to buy a box of cigarettes,” Audy said, and the guy at the counter, who’d been fiddling disinterestedly with his phone, looked up and then straight past Audy to Cass. 

“Hey,” he said. “You’re that kid. You were on the news! Your family’s the one with the-”

Cass clenched their fists, prepared to wait it out. The petty part of their brain, the part that could never seem to let anything go, was already trying to come up with some way to pin this on Sokrates, for wanting to stop for gas before they hit up downtown. Even if it was the sort of practical planning that Cass would usually have lauded. But that was, Cass was forced to admit, too unfair even by their standards. The truck had been practically on empty and anyways, no one was forcing them to trail around after Mako like they’d been doing. 

Mako’s face went stormy and he opened his mouth, but it was Audy who cut in first. 

“I am buying cigarettes,” they said. 

“Yeah, man, one sec,” the guy said. “We’re talking.” 

Audy set some cash on the counter, and then crossed their arms in a way that suddenly made Cass sharply aware of the fact that they were a criminal, technically, who had obtained the vast majority of their not inconsiderable wealth through varying levels of sketchy car deals. “Talking is not necessary for this transaction,” they said. 

They hadn’t specified what brand of cigarettes they’d wanted, and the guy didn’t ask, just tossed a pack of Luckies on the counter and rang up the purchase in sullen silence. 

“Thanks,” said Cass, once Audy had pocketed the cigarettes and the three of them had left the gas station. 

“He did not perform his job efficiently,” Audy said, in tones more observation than reply, but Cass got the gist. 

“Why were you buying cigarettes anyways?” Mako asked. He asked this, for some reason, from directly behind Cass, standing on his tiptoes so he could rest his chin on Cass’ shoulder and insert himself into the line of conversation. Cass jumped, and Mako felt the gesture and cackled, right into Cass’ ear, before nudging Cass to the right so he could squeeze between them and Audy. “You don’t smoke, do you? I feel like we’d know if you smoked.”

“No,” said Audy. 

“Cool,” said Mako. Then, “Can I have one?”

“No,” said Cass, but Audy was alright pulling a cigarette from the pack and handing it over. 

“ _ Nice,”  _ said Mako. He put the cigarette to his lips and mimed blowing smoke at Cass. 

Cass waved a hand in front of their face to disperse the imaginary smoke, wondering why, exactly, they were playing along -- and then Mako’s face broke into a delighted grin, and they switched to wondering who they thought they were fooling. “Those things will kill you, you know,” they said. 

“Well dahling,” said Mako, in an accent that wandered cheerfully between the realms of southern and that mid atlantic accent that always reminded Cass of a roaring twenties flapper. “When you’ve lived the kind of life I have, you learn that it's not about the living, it’s about how you do the living, and how you live.” He punctuated this apparent point with another puff of fake smoke. 

“What does that even  _ mean _ ,” Cass said. “That was nonsense.”

“What is life,” said Mako, his gestures expansive, “but beautiful nonsense?” 

Cass plucked the cigarette out of his hand the next time he waved it close enough and pocketed it. 

“ _ Hey, _ ” said Mako, already holding out a hand towards Audy, who dutifully dropped a replacement into his waiting palm

Mako tucked the new cigarette behind his ear, shot Cass a smug look, and then took off suddenly, closing the last few feet to the truck at a sprint and attempting to hurl himself back into its bed via, inexplicably, the side. There was an  _ oomph _ sound, which Cass had to assume had been the result of Mako getting the wind knocked out of him when his stomach had collided violently with the side of the truck bed, and then a soft thud as Mako managed to shimmy the rest of the way over the edge and land in the bed itself. 

Cass picked up the cigarette, which had fallen from it’s spot behind his ear, and took the more sensible back route into the truck, ignoring Sokrates’ amused smirk. Mako was lying there facing skyward, as he struggled to take in gasping breaths, although whether this was the result of his ill-advised acrobatics or simply because he kept trying to laugh was hard to say. Cass stood over him with their arms crossed, until Mako finally scrambled into a sitting position. 

“Pretty cool, right?” he said, still grinning. 

“Oh, absolutely,” Cass said, voice flat. “Here.” They handed him the cigarette. “You dropped this. Please don’t put it on your mouth if you’re going to blow more fake smoke at me. It’s been on the ground.” 

“Isn’t that good though?” Mako asked, his smile going lopsided the way it always did when he was trying to make Cass scrunch up their eyebrows in a very specific way. Cass knew this because Mako had gleefully told them all about it after spending twenty minutes pretending he didn’t know how to make ramen. At least, Cass was pretty sure he’d been pretending. “Isn’t that how you get like, a wicked strong immune system?” 

“No,” said Cass, aware that they were scrunching their eyebrows up even though they knew they were just playing into Mako’s hand. “That is how you get an incredibly strong disease from ingesting huge amounts of dangerous bacteria and then die.”

“Aww, you wouldn’t steal experimental drugs from your lab to save me?” Mako said. 

“Exactly what experimental drugs do you think they’re given pre-med students access to?” Cass asked. 

“I dunno,” Mako said. “Don’t you guys have to test them on each other though? Like, for class.”

Cass was mercifully spared having to answer this by a shout from Sokrates that they were about to start driving, and to maybe sit down or at least hold on to something. Cass, who had barely registered that they’d been standing this whole time, dropped to the bed with enough indignity that Mako was distracted from his first line of questioning. Given that this new distraction had come in the form of him laughing over Cass’ alarmed expression, Cass was not sure how much of a win they could really call it, but at least it was a change of pace. 

***

Downtown was better than Cass had expected it to be. Cass hadn’t really been many places outside of home, but they watched movies, despite what Mako and Aria might have claimed, so they had a good enough understanding of what an actual city was to know that this place would still have landed just to the left of quaint. Still, it was certainly far larger than the single main street Cass was used to. 

Sokrates came here more often. They had a friend who worked in one of the office buildings here, they explained, and they would drop in on him sometimes. “Thought I’d hang out with you guys today though,” they said, with an awkward shrug, when Cass, none too politely, asked them if they were going to go visit him. 

Without really knowing how much time they ought to have there (Aria had given them a ballpark, but it had been vague and non-committal even as far as estimates went), they were all reluctant to split up and explore anyways. Mako coerced them into an arcade bar, where he had a great time racking up high scores on all the machines and lecturing Audy on how they should be playing Sinistar instead of Galaga. But Cass’ quarters kept getting eaten, until at last Mako shoved them aside with an exasperated, “Here, I got you.” Cass, who had assumed Mako was planning to pay for them, was starting to protest that they didn’t see why Mako would be able to put a quarter in a slot better than they could when Mako pressed a bizarre combination of buttons on the machine and suddenly quarters were spewing everywhere, and they were all being forcibly ushered out of the bar. 

“Here,” Mako said, once they had all safely escaped to a nearby coffee shop. “I got your quarters back,” and then sent a few fistfulls of change clanking onto the table. 

“Jesus,” said Sokrates. 

“They stole it first,” Mako responded immediately. 

Sokrates inclined their head, conceding the point, much to Cass’ surprise. They would have thought Sokrates would have found the whole thing  _ dishonorable _ somehow, or something equally reeking of moral superiority. 

“I want a coffee,” said Mako, standing up again abruptly. “Does anyone want a coffee?”

Cass opened their mouth to offer up their order, but Mako cut them off. “ _ Obviously _ , I will get you your gross green tea thing,” he said. “Look, you can treat us!” He slid the pile of quarters into his hand and started for the counter. 

“He did not wait for my order,” Audy observed mildly.

“You never order anything,” Cass said. 

“Is he okay?” Sokrates asked, their voice dropping to a furtive whisper. 

“What, Mako? Yeah, he’s fine. Just don’t like, imply that he’s stealing shit.” 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think-”

“God. I know. You didn’t. I just-”

Beside them, Audy pulled a packet of flimsy playing cards from one of their seemingly innumerable pockets, and began laying them out on the table in a game of solitaire.

“Where did you get those?” Cass asked, momentary distracted.

“The gas station,” said Audy. They picked up the ace of clubs and moved it to the side. The cards always had a way of coming up aces early, when Audy dealt themself a hand of solitaire. Cass has often wondered what the point was, if Audy was so clearly going to cheat, but of course, they would never have asked. 

“I thought you bought cigarettes,” they said instead. “I don’t remember cards.” 

“Yes,” said Audy. To Sokrates they said. “I will not mind if you call me a criminal.” 

Cass put a hand to their temple, letting it partially obscure their face. “I’m sorry,” they said. “I know you didn’t mean anything. And he did steal them. Technically.” 

“It’s chill,” said Sokrates. “I get it. You know I’m not gonna, like, sell you out to the papers, right?” They said it with a wry smile, like it was a joke. 

“Yeah,” said Cass. “I know. Fucking weird thing to bring up right now.”

“Yeah, well,” said Sokrates.

There was an extended silence broken only by the rippling of cards being shuffled as Audy finished their stacked solitaire game and started another. 

“ _ Heeeey _ ! Coffee!” Mako said. He seemed perfectly normal again, Cass noted, and had several cups wedged under one arm. “Cass, here’s your gross thing. Sokrates I got you the same thing as Cass, ‘cause I figured you guys were related,” he said, slamming drinks down as he went. “And Audy I got you this free water so you could feel included.” 

“Uh, thanks,” said Sokrates. They took a tentative sip of their drink and then hurriedly placed it back on the table, where it remained, untouched. Cass found themself torn between feeling spitefully pleased that they had been given a drink they hated because Cass liked it, and offended that they didn’t like the drink Cass liked. They pushed the feelings aside. Both were equally ridiculous. 

“Hey so, you guys are being like, super weird,” said Mako. “Did something happen?”

“No,” said Cass. 

“We were just catching up,” said Sokrates, far more smooth than Cass had been. “If you wanna carry your coffee there’s a good record store around the corner. Do any of you like vinyl?”

“Cass does,” said Mako. “They claim it’s ‘cause the sound’s better but I think it’s because they can’t figure out how to get music onto their mp3 player.”

“There _ is _ a sound quality difference,” said Sokrates, looking more amused than anything. 

“If you say so,” said Mako. Then to Cass he added, “See?”

“What?” said Cass. 

“Siblings,” said Mako, gesturing to Cass’ tea, and Sokrates’ still untouched cup. “So you like all the same stuff.”

“I really don’t think that’s how it works,” said Cass, but Mako was already heading for the door. 

Sokrates waited until he was a good ways ahead, and then pressed their cup into Cass’ hand. “This is horrible,” they said. “You know I love a good fish pun, and I can’t even make one because I’m too busy being upset that I’m drinking seaweed.”

“Good,” said Cass. “Maybe you’ll learn something from this.” 

“Oh, Cass,” said Sokrates, and Cass didn’t duck quite fast enough to avoid having their hair ruffled. “Are you trying to make me feel gill-ty?”

“Yes,” said Cass. “Come on. We’re falling behind.”

“They don’t know where they’re going,” Sokrates said. 

“Mako’s either already looked it up, or he doesn’t care and he’s just going to wander until he finds it,” Cass said. “And Audy will either follow along to see what happens, or they’ll go find their own thing to look at, and they don’t even have a phone so they’ll be even harder to track down. So seriously, we should really go.”

“Alright!” said Sokrates. “You’ve made your point.” Cass had been listening closely, but the annoyance they’d expected wasn’t there. Something close to it, disappointment maybe, although that didn’t make sense. “Let’s go find your friends,” Sokrates said. 

***

Mako and Audy hadn’t actually gotten very far at all. Defying all of Cass’ expectations, they’d been waiting right outside the door of the coffee shop. Mako had shot Cass a concerned look when they’d come out with Sokrates, but he hadn’t actually said anything, just stuck close to them as they all made the short walk to the record shop, and then trailed after Cass as they browsed, in a way that was calculatedly disinterested but also felt distinctly like he was keeping an eye on them. It wasn’t that Cass didn’t appreciate his concern or anything, but there was no point in Mako wasting his efforts when Cass was totally fine, and anyways, they didn’t like worrying people. There was no way to communicate this to Mako without Sokrates noticing though, so Cass decided to ignore the concern until Mako realized they were fine on his own. 

It was a nice record shop too. Mako hadn’t been lying when he said that Cass maybe didn’t understand their mp3 player as well as they maybe should have, but it was more than that. Cass liked the  _ feel _ of records, the tangibility of them. And it was nice to know that Mako would have a harder time sneaking into Cass’ room and replacing all their records with the MIDI version of every song than he apparently did with their mp3 player.

“Hey Cass,” said Sokrates, breaking Cass out of the meditative calm they’d been sliding into. “You still into this stuff?”

Cass looked up, preparing to throw off some jab or other, only the album Sokrates slid across the stacks towards them had the instantly recognizable stratified lines of Joy Division's  _ Unknown Pleasures _ , and Cass’ words went heavy in their throat. It wasn’t even that it was their favorite album or anything. They could just remember playing a lot of stuff like that, back in high school, Joy Division, the Cure, sometimes the Smiths when they were feeling particularly maudlin. They still pulled them up occasionally, when they wanted to try and conjure up some nostalgia, but the feelings always ended up contaminated; tinged with the bitterness of all that had been happening. 

“Uh, yeah,” they said, reaching out to take the album from them. “Didn’t think you remember stuff like that.”

Sokrates grinned, slightly sideways. “Hard to forget your kid sibling dyeing their hair black and locking themself in their room for hours with this stuff blasting out from under the door,” they said. “Besides, these were some of your better choices.”

Mako, who’s only comments since coming into the store thus far had been to pronounce records stupid, presumably because they weren’t digital, and then glue himself to his phone screen, looked up, suddenly interseted. “Cass dyed their hair black?” he said. “Cass, your hair is already basically black.”

“They also dyed the tips blue,” Sokrates said, grinning in earnest now. “If that makes it better.”

“That is  _ confidential information, _ ” Cass hissed, over Mako’s cries of delight. “I was  _ coping _ .” 

“Yeah, I know buddy,” Sokrates said, their voice a little too close to serious for Cass’ liking. Like they’d really had any idea what Cass had been up to. Still, when they were all starting to feel like it was late enough that they should be getting back, Cass took the album and tucked it under their arm, paying for it with their card and the rest of the Mako’s stolen quarters.

***

“This is taking  _ forever _ ,” Mako said, collapsing onto Audy, who propped him back onto his own feet immediately. Mako veered the trajectory of his lean towards Cass instead, who side stepped it neatly, and then ended up having Mako draped against them anyways, when they had to reach out to stop him from falling. “Are you  _ sure _ I can’t sneak in through the back and check their records?” continued Mako, evidently uninterested in moving. Cass, in an effort not to start weirdly staring at him, accidentally made eye contact with Sokrates, who was back to smirking. Cass hastily found something else to fix their eyes on. Mako, oblivious to all this, was still talking. “Just to see what’s taking so long? It would barely even be hacking.”

Cass had to admit they were almost tempted. It was now long past when Aria had told them she'd probably be ready, and the slow stream of girls making their way out of the building and past them had died down to almost a trickle. “Maybe we could go in and ask for an estimate?” they suggested doubtfully. 

No one acknowledged this suggestion and there was a beat of dull silence. Then Audy stomped over to Sokrates’ car and opened the hood. 

“Uh,  _ hey,” _ said Sokrates, trying to slide themself between Audy and their car with limited success. “What are you doing there, buddy?” 

“There is something wrong with your engine,” Audy said, ignoring Sokrates’ latent distress. They reached into the car and began fiddling with one of the tubes. 

Sokrates shot Cass a helpless look, but Cass could only offer a shrug. Audy knew how to fix cars on a professional level --Cass had at least enough understanding of what Audy did for a living to know that -- but it was a skill which they reserved mostly for vehicles they were trying to flip. Cass could not shake the memory of the time the defroster on Audy’s last car had broken. It had been mid-winter and the glass of the windshield would freeze over immediately, making it impossible to see through. The vents had still worked though, so, instead of simply replacing the defroster, Audy had taken a vent hose and jerry rigged it on the dash so that it pointed towards the window, creating a small circle of clear windshield. They had driven with only this small window of visibility for the whole winter. It had been harrowing. 

“You’re just telling me this  _ now?”  _ Sokrates said. 

“Yes,” said Audy, and then, perhaps sensing they could not deal with Sokrates in quite the same way they did their own friends, they added, “The engine will be cold now.” 

Sokrates hovered fretfully by Audy’s side for a few minutes more, but when Audy made no move to acknowledge them, or to stop shifting things around in the hood, they gave up and came back to stand with Cass and Mako. 

“It’s cool. Audy won’t like, blow it up or anything,” Mako said, patting them consolingly on the shoulder. “They’re really good with cars.”

“Didn’t you say their last car ended up in a lake?” Sokrates asked sceptically.

“Oh, yeah.” Mako shrugged. “But those were extenuating circumstances.”

“Audy assured us the car was already on the way out,” Cass added. Audy had done no such thing, but fortunately, they were too focused on whatever it was they were doing that was causing such ominous clanking sounds to dispute the claim. 

Mako had just launched into what had the makings of being a horrifyingly detailed account of just how exactly Audy’s car had ended up in a lake, when a woman dressed all in pink and looking distinctly more upbeat than her predecessors came flying out of the door. 

“Guys!” said Aria, flinging herself at the group as a whole and throwing her arms around the lot of them.

“Holy shit, you got it?” Mako asked. 

Aria bounced on her heels. “Won’t know anything officially ‘til Friday,” she said, her voice incongruously gleeful. 

“Oh _ kay _ ,” said Mako. “So what does that mean?”

“It  _ means,”  _ said Aria, “that I got  _ offered the contract _ ! But we don’t sign until Friday, so technically, I’m not legally allowed to tell anyone!” Her words curved upwards as she spoke, ending in a squeal, and she clasped her hands together rapturously. 

“ _ Fuck _ yes!” said Mako. “I knew you’d get it! Cuz you’re the best! This is awesome!”

“Guys, I’m gonna have a label!” Aria cried, “I’m gonna make albums!” and she grabbed Mako’s hands and danced him around on the pavement. 

“I think we have to wait a minute before we can head out,” said Sokrates, after everyone had wished Aria congratulations, and submitted themselves to being danced around in equal measure. “Apparently there’s something wrong with the engine? Audy said they would fix it for me.”

Audy, who had left the car when Aria had appeared, went back over and closed the hood with a muted slam. 

“We may leave now,” they said. 

“Oh,” said Sokrates. “Are you sure we’re good to drive? That was fast.”

“Yes,” said Audy. “The engine is no longer a concern.”

Sokrates looked somewhat doubtful, but they only shrugged. “Cool,” they said. “Whatever.” 

Aria, having also witnessed Audy’s car repairs on an up close and personal level, managed to reign in her euphoria long enough to give Cass a look of questioning concern. 

“I don’t think it will, like, blow up?” Cass whispered. 

This was apparently enough to reassure Aria, who flashed a thumbs up and then made her way cheerfully to the back of the truck. She was skipping, Cass noted, and had to hide a grin in their shoulder. No one deserved that kind of happiness more than Aria. 

***

It was full dark by the time Sokrates’ truck pulled to a stop on the mangled asphalt of Audy’s driveway. With the darkness had come a biting cold. Cass, Aria and Mako had spent the last hour of the drive huddled up together under the tarp Sokrates had promised them, shivering violently, so it made sense that Aria would be clambering her way out of the truck almost before it stopped moving. 

“Thank god,” she said. “I’m freezing. I’m gonna make hot chocolate. Does anyone else want any?” 

“Oh, I do,” said Mako, scrambling out of the truck and racing after her. 

The two of them shouted a chorus of ‘thank yous’ towards Sokrates and then disappeared into the house, the screen door clattering on its hinges behind them. 

Audy got out of the car, gave Sokrates a curt nod, then followed after them, and then it was just Cass and Sokrates, standing alone on the dimly lit driveway. 

“Hey, thanks for the ride,” Cass said, drumming their heel against one of the cracking wedges of the driveway. The wedge shifted beneath their weight. Audy should really get their driveway fixed, Cass reflected. 

“No problem,” said Sokrates. “Your friends seem cool.”

“Yeah, they’re alright.” 

This, to Cass, seemed like the end of the conversation where Sokrates would say their goodbyes and then drive away, and then the two of them would maybe go back to comfortably not speaking to each other for long interims of time. But Sokrates was still standing there, the light of the street lamp landing harsh on their cheekbones, accentuating the hollows beneath their eyes. They looked, Cass realized suddenly, absurdly tired, in a way that Cass could see sometimes, reflected in their own face when they happened to glance into a mirror on some of their worst days, all fine lines ground knife-like into something sharp and cutting.

Then Sokrates said, “So, are you and Mako-” and Cass remembered suddenly that they wanted this conversation to end.

“Whatever you’re thinking, stop.”

“Right,” said Sokrates. “Sorry. It’s nice though,” they continued after a moment, their tone cautious enough to render their words almost, but not quite, a question. “That you, you know, have people.” 

“Yeah, well,” said Cass, and then trailed off. They could feel the next sentence pushing at the edges of their lips, cruel and accusatory, and they pressed them instead into a firm line. 

“Hey,” said Sokrates, gently prodding, and Cass realized that at some point, they had stopped looking at Sokrates, and that during that time, Sokrates’ face had undergone a transformation so that the detached, smirking Sokrates of earlier have vanished entirely, fractured with regret. “Sorry I wasn’t around. You know. For you.”

“Well,” said Cass again, and this time they both let it hum in the air for a long long moment, as Cass blew the dust off conclusions they’d made a long time ago. Then they said, “It’s not like you had much of a choice.”

Sokrates laughed, the sound brittle. “They didn’t give any of us much of a choice, did they? Still, I’m sorry I didn’t try.” 

“Hey, do you wanna come over for dinner on Friday?” Cass said, abruptly. “Friday’s we usually have a- We eat dinner together. I always make that um, you remember that squid ink pasta thing we used to have all the time?”

“Oh my god!” Sokrates exclaimed. “You still remember how to make that thing?” 

“I mean, yeah? We made it like, a million times?” 

“God,” said Sokrates, their expression wistful. “And Euanthe would get so mad ‘cause you always tried to put in too much pepper.” 

“It’s supposed to have pepper!” Cass protested. “That hasn’t changed. If you come on Friday, it’s going to have a lot of pepper.” 

“Well I wouldn’t wanna miss that,” Sokrates said. They put their hand to the car door again, where it lingered. Then they stuffed both hands into their pockets, bounced once on the balls of their feet. “Right,” they said. 

“They wouldn’t mind if you came in too, you know,” said Cass. “If you wanted to.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” said Sokrates. “You guys are celebrating. Besides, I really should get going. I’ll be here Friday though. Promise.” 

They grinned at Cass, all teeth, and it was a little strained and, frankly, a little alarming but Cass found themself, despite everything, grinning back. 

“Sure,” they said. “Friday.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about Audy's car hacks: I know nothing about cars but my grandpa was a mechanic and that's a thing he did to my dad's car in... Mass. In the winter.


	2. Bonus Content

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tender and Fourteen mix drinks.

“Okay, so here’s the situation,” Fourteen said, their expression slightly manic. 

The cause of the crashing that had sent Tender running into the back room was instantly apparent. The pile of ceramic novelty drink mugs that Tender had imagined into being was now scattered across the floor in a million colorful shards, accompanied by a frankly obscene quantity of whipped cream, which covered not only the floor, but also the counter Fourteen had been working on, and indeed, a good deal of Fourteen’s face, although this last bit looked more like they’d gotten whipped creams all over their hands, and then somehow forgotten and absently transferred it. Really, if Tender had known making the holiday drinks was going to be this difficult of an assignment she would have made them the way she usually made things, but Fourteen had been adamant that they be allowed to help and Tender had a hard time denying them anything. 

“Did you know,” said Tender, ignoring Fourteen’s feverish and doubtless mostly fabricated explanations, “that you have whipped cream on your face?” 

“Well,” said Fourteen, fully abandoning their doomed efforts to get the counter into any sort of order or justify how it had gotten that way in the first place. They looked at Tender from under their lashes, and Tender could feel herself beginning to laugh before Fourteen even started talking. “It seemed a shame to waste it, and I know how cats like cream.” 

“Oh my  _ god!”  _ Tender shrieked. She shoved at Fourteen, a little harder than the friendly nudge she’d intended, and they went stumbling back a few steps, looking betrayed. “Did you  _ schmear _ whipped cream all over your  _ face _ so I would  _ kiss you?” _

“I don’t know,” said Fourteen, looking slightly cowed. “Did it work?” 

Tender rolled her eyes, even as she opened her arms in invitation. “Yes, come here you.”

“Oh good,” said Fourteen, and stepped forward to kiss her.

The kiss was pretty terrible actually. Well, it was Fourteen, so it was still lovely of course. Everything Fourteen did was lovely, even when they were making a complete catastrophe (ha) of the Steady’s back room. But they hadn’t exactly been abstemious when they were covering their face with whipped cream, and it was making Tender’s face sticky and, more disastrous still, getting in her hair. So when Tender broke the kiss, it was only with a little reluctance.

Fourteen swiped a blob of whipped cream out of Tender’s hair with the pad of their finger. “I’m afraid this was a terrible idea,” they said ruefully. 

“Oh, very much so,” said Tender, laughing. “I’m going to get this straightened up and wash my face, and then…” she trailed off meaningfully. 

“And then?” Fourteen repeated breathlessly. 

“And then Fourteen, you are very much fired.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact about Audy's car hacks: I know nothing about cars but my grandpa was a mechanic and that's a thing he did to my dad's car in... Mass. In the winter.


End file.
